


Tough Girl

by iknowhowmystoryends (gorgeouschaos)



Series: Broken Pedestals [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Female Dean Winchester, Remix
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 13:21:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30123372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorgeouschaos/pseuds/iknowhowmystoryends
Summary: Dean Winchester is born a girl. Some things are different; the important things aren’t. Remix of Like a Girl.(See author's note for warnings.)
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
Series: Broken Pedestals [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1594609
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	1. Pre-Series through Season One: Sam

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Like a Girl](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22153717) by [notyouranswer (gorgeouschaos)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorgeouschaos/pseuds/notyouranswer). 



> I came to dislike Like a Girl-- I felt like the writing wasn't great, even if I really liked the concepts in the fic. I also felt like I ignored some of the potential side effects of Dean being female and having to hustle.  
> So here we are. This is basically a rewrite. I'll leave Like a Girl up, though.  
> Warnings for: implied underage sex; implied/referenced prostitution, including underage prostitution; misogyny in general, especially slut-shaming. Please feel free to ask questions if you'd like more info.  
> I think there will be roughly four chapters, but we'll see.  
> Title from Daddy Lessons by Beyonce, which is a very Dean song.  
> Thanks for reading, hope you like it, and I love hearing from y'all.

“Hey, Winchester!” Tyler calls. Sam pauses in the middle of the hallway, prepared to be called trailer trash for the fifth time that day. 

"What?"

"Your whore of a sister fucked her way through the whole baseball team yet? I hear she's been trying real hard to raise team spirit, if you know what I mean." Tyler thrusts his hips crudely.

Sam decks Tyler so hard something in his hand cracks.

John is actually in town for once, so when the principal calls, John comes to Sam's school. He even puts on his fed suit.

John listens to the principal rant about how violence is unacceptable, apologizes to Tyler's parents, promises to punish Sam, and walks out with his hand clamped down hard on Sam's shoulder.

The minute the Impala's doors close, John rips his tie off and snaps, "You better have a damn good reason for drawing that much attention to yourself.”

“He called Dean a whore,” Sam says. He can feel his chin jutting out in the way his father hates, but he can’t help it. “So I punched him.”

John scrapes the back of his hand over his beard. “Your sister can take care of herself, Sammy.”

“It’s Sam,” Sam says. “And I know. Doesn’t mean I can’t help.”

John starts the Impala. “You think she’d appreciate that?”

“I don’t know. All I know is she wasn’t there, and I was.”

John doesn’t respond with words. He does swing through the McDonald’s drive-through, though. Sam gets a milkshake. 

Dean splints Sam’s broken finger and shoves a bag of frozen peas at him. She studies his face, chewing on her bottom lip like she does when she’s doing math. 

“He called you a whore,” Sam mumbles. 

“He ain’t wrong.” Dean smiles, but her eyes are hard. “It’s not worth it, Sam. Let it go.”

Sam makes no promises. 

Dean teaches Sam how to throw a proper punch once his finger heals. 

Sam gets in three more fights with classmates before he graduates middle school. All of them are about Dean. Each time, Dean patches Sam up and tells him to leave it alone. 

Once Sam hits ninth grade, having a hot older sister with a reputation for being promiscuous becomes a point in his favor with his peers. The taunts die down in favor of envy, and Sam loses his reputation as a troublemaker.

He never forgets how to fight dirty, though.

Sam knows Dean is objectively gorgeous. Dean knows it too, and she takes full advantage of her beauty. She dresses like she's trying to give John a heart attack, all jean shorts and crop tops and sharp eyeliner. 

Dean is practical. She treats everything about herself like a weapon, and she uses her appeal very well. Sam grows up watching her manipulate everyone from high school boys to cops. He’s never sure if he should feel proud or not.

Even when she dresses as provocatively as possible to go out and hustle pool, Dean always wears her steel-toed boots. 

“I need to be able to run or kick the shit out of someone at any given point,” she tells him, applying blood-red lipstick. “Always be prepared, Sammy. Like a Boy Scout,or whatever.”

“It’s Sam,” he says, looking up from his chemistry homework.

She snorts. “I’m the older one, I can call you what you want.”

Sam watches her strap a holster to her thigh and slide her handgun into it. Her skirt barely hides the weapon. He knows Dean already has a knife strapped to her ankle, too, and probably brass knuckles in the pocket of John’s leather jacket.

“Be careful,” he says.

Dean rolls her eyes and leaves. 

Sam goes back to his homework. 

When Dean comes back with a wad of money tucked into her bra, blood on her hands, and a too-wide smile, Sam slams his textbook shut.

“I’m going with you next time,” he says.

Sam might want to be more than a hunter and more than his sister, but like hell is he going to let Dean get hurt for him.

Every time the money John leaves runs out after that, Dean pulls on one of her transparent tops, straps on her gun, and leaves with Sam by her side. 

Sam gets very good at channeling John’s _ do I have to go through you son  _ drill sergeant voice very quickly.

It’s fucked up that the guys Dean con respect what they perceive as competition more than Dean herself. 

Sam says as much and Dean laughs. 

“What else is new,” she says. “Whole world's fucked up. But hey, we’ve got rent money.”

When Sam leaves for Stanford, Dean drives him.

"Dad's not gonna be happy," Sam warns. 

Dean shrugs. Her face is set in tense lines that make her look much older than she really is. Her makeup is as precise as ever, but her mascara is smeared from where she's swiped away tears.

"Come with me," Sam blurts. 

"You know I can't, Sammy.” 

"Why?" Sam demands. "Why can't you ever just not do what Dad says? Do you want to spend the rest of your life following his orders?"

Sam watches his sister's hands go white on the Impala's steering wheel.

"I'm a hunter, Sammy," Dean says. "This is my life."

"It doesn't have to be. You don't have to be his perfect goddamn daughter."

Sam realizes he's said the wrong thing immediately.

"Being his daughter has nothing to do with it."

"Sorry."

Dean turns up the radio.

When they get to Palo Alto, Dean gives him a brief, one-armed hug.

"Go on then, bitch," she says.

"Jerk," he chokes out.

People pay more attention to Dean than to Sam. Sam guesses a hot girl in a muscle car is pretty hard to ignore.

He takes a deep breath and starts walking.

/

When Dean shows up four years later, Sam gets his ass kicked, and then his sister hits it off with Jessica.

"Let's hang out sometime," Jess tells Dean before Dean and Sam leave. "You can tell me stories about my boyfriend being stupid and we can do drunk karaoke."

"It's a deal," Dean promises.

Sam looks Dean over in the light of the garage.

She’s wearing a Metallica t-shirt cut off to the midriff and low-slung jeans that cling tight to her legs. Her boots are the same, and she still wears John's leather jacket. 

Apart from her new scars, she looks exactly like she did the day Sam left.

I know," she says, noticing his gaze. "I look fantastic."

Sam sighs through his nose. Just like that, he’s back in his little brother role, trailing along in his big sister’s shadow.

Some things never change.

Dean never gets the chance to tell Jess stories about Sam being stupid.

Dean has a talent for getting information out of men.

Sam breaks out his best Dad voice to scare guys away on more than one occasion. It comes back to him with the ease of practice.

"You don't have to flash your boobs every time we interrogate a guy," Sam mutters as he watches an overeager college kid practically run away.

"Makes it easier, though," Dean says. "Guys lose their ability to think when they see a nice pair of tits. A push-up bra and a few undone buttons and they’ll tell me about anything.”

Sam bites his tongue. She isn't really wrong.

“They call me a slut if I sleep with them and a bitch if I don’t,” Dean tells him one day while driving, seemingly at random. She turns her head towards him, her eyes hidden behind black sunglasses. It makes Sam nervous when she does that, but the Impala stays steady between the lines. “They’re never gonna learn, so why bother trying to teach them?”

Sam frowns. He can vividly remember what happened to the last person who had called his sister a bitch to her face. It involved Dean’s gun and some very graphic threats.“What would you call what you do, then?”

Dean flashes him a grin. “Therapeutic.”

Sam huffs and shakes his head. He can’t help but smile back.


	2. Season Four (Dean)

The angel calls her a Righteous Man and Dean wants to stab him again.

"I've spent more than enough of my life trying to live up to what men expect of me," she spits.

"Gender has nothing to do with the title,” Cas says.

“Then shouldn’t it be “Righteous Person” or something?”

The angel elects not to respond.

Cas pisses Dean the hell off most of the time. The angel is a self-righteous, emotionless prick with a spine so straight it could pass for a Republican politician. He and Dean can never seem to agree on anything.

He does have one thing going for him, though-- he isn’t sexist. Considering Dean’s admittedly scant knowledge of the Bible, that comes as a surprise. 

(Pastor Jim was as fair to her as anyone else, but Dean considers him the exception to the rule. There’s a reason she makes Sam deal with the religious nutjobs.)

Deanna Smith is a high-powered, high-profile, highly paid lawyer who makes partner at her firm within seven years. She specializes in representing women who had been assaulted by men in power. She finds it rewarding, if exhausting, and she enjoys the lifestyle it provided her with. Her trademark look is bright red lipstick with black boots.

Sam Wesson is one of the firm’s secretaries. 

When Dean and Sam come back to their real world, Sam is very indignant about that. Dean finds it hilarious. 

As a friend, Dean feels she has an obligation to get Cas laid before the two of them probably die. 

“So, uh.” Dean coughs. “Who’re you into? Girls, guys? Other kinds of people?”

Cas looks away and rubs his neck.

“None of the above?”

There is no reply.

Dean considers her options. Her years of working the streets put her off brothels, and she doubt Cas would want to go to one anyway; Cas would stick out like a sore thumb in a bar; Dean isn’t an option, because she tries not to make a habit of fucking her friends.

People make a bigger deal out of sex than it’s worth anyway.

“You wanna just play Risk or something?”

Castiel nods fervently.

Dean lasts almost two hours before Castiel manages to take over six of the seven continents. Overall, she thinks it’s more fun than they would have had otherwise.

“When we were… sixteen, I think? Yeah. When we were sixteen, we pretended to be Dad’s son for three days on a hunt. And you know what? We kinda liked it. Even if the ACE bandages made our ribs hurt like hell.”

Future Dean runs her tongue over her teeth and nods. “Yeah. Heads up, don’t use ACE bandages in the future. Cas’ll yell at you.”

“I-- we?-- we do that again?”

Future Dean smiles and doesn't answer, just leaves Dean cuffed to the ladder.

Future Dean wears a beat-up military uniform and no makeup. She still wears the same combat boots and weapons, though, and her hair is just as short as… Current Dean’s? Past Dean’s?

Dean gives up on thinking about it and starts picking the lock on the cuffs. 

Future her is a dick. At least that much hasn’t changed. Dean does take a perverse amount of pride in being a bitch. 

The Trickster sticks Dean in Leia’s gold bikini. She does her level best to strangle him with the chain.

Half of Blue Earth, Minnesota decides Dean is the epitome of sin. The other half decides she’s the Whore of Babylon.

“What the fuck,” Dean pants, braced against the door. “What did I do? I don’t have  _ that  _ much premarital sex.”

“I mean--” Sam starts. 

The look Dean shoots her brother makes him snap his mouth shut.

“Well, you were a prostitute,” Cas points out. 

“Hey,” Sam snaps. 

Cas tilts his head. “That was a statement of fact, not an insult.”

The door shudders as Sam stares at Dean. 

“Later, Sam,” she says, cursing Cas mentally. “Really not the time.”

Sam visibly shakes himself and turns his attention back to not being murdered.

“Looks like you’re a Righteous Woman after all,” Cas says. 

Dean thumps him on the back in approval. “You’re learning.”


End file.
